good morning

I had to drive in to work today so I got up at 4am and missed traffic so that I could get to the gym early and get a run in. This was my 6th day in a row of running, something I've seldom done in the past even before knee surgery. I'm trying to put together some higher mileage weeks and get my body to the point where a 50KM race isn't so taxing. I was pretty beat up after the race I did a few months ago. I was doing about 30 mile weeks at the time. I want to get to 45 - 50 mile weeks but that might be a long shot with the amount of spare time I have. Having a job and a long commute really cuts into my free time. :)

Today I ran through Redmond similar to the start of my 6mi tempo loop through the streets and sidewalks until I reached the south east corner of the Bridle Trails. (yes, again with the Bridle Trails, they're the only trails to run here) The trails are laid out over a big rectangle with a couple of small rectangles cut out of it (center north and south west). I usually run the perimeter of the area to get the longest route I can out of it. Today entered the trails in the south east and headed north for a CCW loop. I wanted to get a 10 mile run today so I planned to run one full loop of the perimeter which would finish at the southeast corner and then run up the east side for a lap and a quarter before taking the corridor trail back to 148th ave and then back to the gym.

I felt good for the first mile of the run and then the spring in my step slowly faded as the soreness in my legs from the last 5 days of running started to surface. I was happy just getting out to run and even working to keep a 8:30/mi pace on the trails was enjoyable. By comparison the trails were really busy this morning, I passed by 3 other runners while I was out there which is 2 more than I pass on a good day. I felt like I was barely dragging along for big chunks of the run and I'll be glad to take tomorrow off. I'm hoping to get a 2 hour run in on Sunday to hit 100 miles early this month. With good health I could easily hit 150 miles this month and take a crack at beating my historical high of 168 miles back in 2003. 168 isn't that high but without going to 2-a-day runs I just don't have the time to break 200 mi/month. Should my monthly mileage even matter? I love to run and want to spend my free time doing it. I don't care that much about mileage other than in a self-competitive satisfaction way. Sometimes I get into a "I'm in great shape, look how many miles I ran" mental space. That and I love the Dopamine boost that running provides.

Time: 1:30
Dist: 10.6mi
Avg: 8:29/mi
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